What was the most difficult question?

How did you prepare for the interview?

What impressed you positively?

"TUCOM has the best anatomy lab I have seen anywhere! The lighting in the lab is bright, not so bright that it blinds you, but excellent. You can barely detect the smell in there. Plenty of space in the lab. TUCOM is located in the Bay Area, which contains cities (SF, San Jose) where there's a lot to do. But the city of Vallejo does not represent the Bay Area at all. There's on-campus housing close to lecture halls, but is up on the hill. One student told me there's a cafeteria - meal plans...but I'm still not sure about this."
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What impressed you negatively?

"SO MANY NEGATIVES!!! You have to see and experience it to believe it. Touro is located on Mare Island, a former naval island for ships. This island is full of contamination - nuclear waste, chemical waste that has not been cleaned up. Mare Island (3 miles by 1 mile) has so many abandoned factory buildings, ships, rockets. Looks like a WWII war zone. Stop lights don't function because so little car on island. Roads are uneven on island. City of Vallejo feels unsafe is underdeveloped. Nothing to do in this city. Not much choices to eat. Nobody in area knows what Touro University is. Once you reach the front of the university, which is way inside (north) of island, you see a cheap paper sign with the school's name taped to a concrete rectangular piece. Upon entering the school, you notice many buildings - don't be tricked because the school consists of only 1 library, 1 lecture/lab building, 1 administrative building. Up on the hill, the dorm is located there and on the left side of the dorm is the so-called cafeteria which I'm not sure if this is the case. I recommend staying at the Best WEstern - a shuttle picks you up on the day of the interview. On the day of the interview, at 8:30 AM, Dr. Haight, director of Admissions meets with all students on the 3rd floor and talks a lot on things like how many applications TUCOM receives, his daughter's cat, what are our chances of being accepted, etc.. He is a nice, knowledgeable person, but it's his job to sell you the school. But don't be fooled by this. at 9:00 AM, a person from Best Western takes all the students in a van to Touro, following Dr. Haight's station wagon. After that, we were seated in a room, that looks like an interrogation room in the admissions building and Dr. Haight goes over again what our chances of being accepted, what to do during the interview. we also introduce each otehr. After that, a financial aid person presents a 5 minute presentation, which was extremely inadequate. after that, a student gave a tour of the campus, which was not much. The student tour showed us the library (lack of books), lecture/lab, basketball court (looks like from the 70s), gym (very small, looks like dust accumulated on old equip), raquetball court. He showed us the dorm, but said that we should just look from a distance. I was thinking something is up with this. We had about 30 min before 12, time start of the interview, so we just wasted time. During the whole time, he could barely hear what he was saying even though i was standing next to him most of the time. at 12 PM, a group of us , 5, went with a panel of 4 people to interview in a room. This is when the nightmare became worse. I felt like this 60 min was an interrogation. Other students told me the same. Each person is asked about 4-5 questions, and you have to sell yourself. AFter the interview, we are asked waht further questions we have. During the interview, the panel jus looks at you, don't even smile. I don't think anybody on the panel wanted to be there. AFter the interview, one person , a female professor, on the panel just left without shaking anybody's hands, which i felt totally unprofessional and immature. The questions weren't hard, but the environment of the interview was hard because you don't have opportunities to express yourself, feels like you're rushed, and feels like 9 people are evaluating you instead of 4,. The interview had a competitive nature to it. During the interview, if you talked too long, they cut you off like they're talking to a child. The student interviewer on the panel gave dirty looks at us like he was jealous, and that he was somehow superior to us. After the interview is over, you go back to the orig room in admissions and they feed you some hard like rock sandwiches (tuna, roast beef). Then Dr. Haight tells you what to expect like acceptance, rejection, hold... Then the Best WEstern at 1:30 PM picks everyone up and takes them home. I agree with most of the posts about TUCOM that Dr. Haight is a cool person and with tons of knowledge. But I felt that he was trying to deflect a lot of shortcomings of the school: inferior facilities, unhappy students and professors, lack of clinical rotations in CA (most in other states), ....despite all the negatives, I still believe that if you are ambitious and work hard, you can become a dr. regardless. i highly recommend listening to other students' opinions and experiences, visit the campus, pay close attention during your interview, and make a decision on your best interest. Oh, the $2000 non-refundable deposit within 2 weeks is ridiculous. they try and trap students. other schools give you until the middle of Dec. to make a decision. One more thing, I didn't need to hear like 2 hours of what my chances are to get accepted. I wanted to hear what the school offers, 1st 2 yrs, clinical rotations, residency opportunities, housing situation,-the relevant stuff. one example is when Dr. Haight was talking about the dorm situation, he said that we should not go see it because it's too far away. From my prior visiting experience, there are steps that take like 2 min to reach it. seems like certain things were deliberately being hidden."
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What did you wish you had known ahead of time?

"students did not appear happy at all. they're closing q-quarters, apartments and studios 1 mile from school. So this means that only the dorms (around 92 rooms) are available. so chances are you have to live off campus which is a hassle, because vallejo is unsafe and it takes some time to get to the campus. there's 2 entrances to the school, both with security guards. dont' use yahoo or mapquest because it will lead you to a hill with houses and apartments. the school is located on mare island, a huge island located adjacent to vallejo. school rents the property and location from city of vallejo. most of the money from the tuition is probably spent on touro college, the parent school of TUCOM in new york. they are also planning to build a DO school in las vegas. This is disturbing because TUCOM has lots of room to improve, yet they focus on another location. I would say finish the work here before venturing somewhere else. "
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